Mexican Coke keeping sugar; a new tasty pastry

Updated 5:48 pm, Thursday, November 7, 2013

Turns out that the kerfuffle over Mexican Coke cutting its cane sugar was just a tempest in a glass bottle.

The panic began last week with a blog post from the Atlantic's sister site, Quartz, which reported the bottler of Coca-Cola in Mexico may shift its sweetener from cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in response to a tax on soft drink sales throughout the country.

This tax was approved by Mexico's congress Oct. 31 in an attempt to address the country's obesity epidemic. This summer, Mexico recently surpassed the United States for the world's highest obesity rate.

Then head of Arca Continental SAB said in a conference call with analysts that the Mexico-based Coca-Cola bottler could move to more fructose over the cane sugar that has created devoted fans of Mexican Coke in the United States and created a cult of aficionados for the imported drink. Bottlers in this country switched from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s.

That was enough to start the online gnashing of teeth. Stories in Slate, The Daily Meal, Gizmodo, Latin Times and CultureMap, among others, expressed some of the outrage.

Alas, the fear proved short-lived. Arca Continental released a statement saying it has no plans to change the sweetener for the Coke bottles it exports. Those will continue to use 100 percent cane sugar.

Crisis averted. It's safe to drink too much soda again.

The DeuxNut has arrived

This past summer, New Yorkers went crazy for the Cronut, a cross between a fried doughnut and a flaky croissant that was created by chef Dominique Ansel, who trademarked the name. Within weeks, the craze was spreading across the country.

Now San Antonians can get their own version of the croissant-doughnut hybrid called the H-E-B DeuxNut.

Available on Saturdays and Sundays at most stores that fry doughnuts, the pastry comes in two flavors, apple and Bavarian cream filled, and sells for $1.68.